"critter"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> She went on to say: "my feeling is that the way _the word critter has been used as a racial slur in the past_ makes it feel very wrong in this context." (That would be "_critter_" used as _a milder version of the slur "nigger"_.)
>

I'll be John Brown! This is news to me! I don't think that I've ever
even heard "critter" used in the wild in my entire life! I'm familiar
with it, of course. But, when I come across it, I think, "Gabby
Hayes," and not "Overt expression of racism!".

IME, I can compare it only to the pejoration of _moist_ as being a
concept that's just plain weird. The other night I was watching some
tube and there was a scene featuring the old
say-a-bad-word-and-put-a-quarter-into-the-jar sketches. Each 'bad"
word had its own jar. The "Moist" jar was the only one overflowing
with quarters. (My take was that the idea of "moist" as a *bad word"
was being mocked. YMMV.)

On the other side of the coin is the melioration of heretofore
traditionally-"bad" words. My fellow East-Texan, Ellen DeGeneres opens
her show by saying to her audience, "Hello, bitches!" Guys - and,
sometimes, even *chicks*! - casually discuss "tapping that ass" during
the "family" hour!

Youneverknow.

"Political correctness" is jut plain silly! Surely, there exist
genuine expressions of racism that are far more worthy of popular
attention, as well as far more subtle. E.g., the recent Republican
statement that the assertion that there are "poor" [sic] people in the
United States is utterly ridiculous. Why, nearly 100% of the "poor"
own refrigerators! Compared to what? Having only iceboxes?

That's the kind of thing that the bleeding hearts should be concerning
themselves with, not the search for  - or the invention of - new
"racial slurs"!

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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